“These are unprecedented times for the Council and by 2015 we would have lost 50% of our funding from central Government. We received some very detailed responses from members of the public and interested parties to our consultation. We have been aware throughout this process that some people hold very strong views about our proposals and we have made every effort to listen directly to those people. The recommendations would mean that we are making real changes to the original proposals based on the responses we received.

“If these recommendations are accepted and the criteria is applied to the highway network, Sheffield would still provide the highest level of Winter Maintenance Service compared to other Local Authorities across the country and this would also include those areas that have a similar topography to Sheffield.”

The recommendations include retaining the Priority 1 gritting routes as previously established. It has also been recommended that the criteria for the Priority 2 gritting routes should be changed from those published in the proposal to now be:

The road that forms part of the SYPTE bus route; or

The road has a main entrance to a School, Doctor’s Surgery, Pharmacy, Care Home, Residential Children’s Home or other critical public facilities; or

The road carries over 3000 cars per day and has a significant gradient (in excess of 10% (i.e. 1:10)).

The road constitutes a Western access route for traffic travelling to Manchester Road avoiding causing congestion to other arterial routes

These criteria if agreed by the Cabinet Highways Committee will then be applied to all roads across the city to establish the new Priority 2 gritting network.

The report further recommends that the criteria for the grit bins to be accepted and for this to be applied to all grit bins on the highway. Those grit bins that score 1 or more, under the recommendation, will remain on the network. However if an existing bin is on a Priority 1 or Priority 2 road then it is recommended that the road in question should not be considered for a grit bin.

The report also recommends that the current Snow Warden scheme should continue but no new Snow Wardens would be recruited for future years.